The Fate of Humor in a Time of Civil and Cold War: Vanity Fair and Race

Analyzes the treatment of race and humor in Vanity Fair, a popular antebellum periodical that a number of the Pfaff's bohemians contributed to. Specifically, considers the irony that, "while the Bohemians associated with Vanity Fair gladly enlisted in the battle to free humanity from the shackles of social repression" they did not throw their support behind the abolitionist effort (31). Instead, the Civil War-era Vanity Fair was marked by pronounced racism towards African Americans, which it expressed through a variety of attempts at humor.